But on Saturday night at UFC 218, he became the first fighter to beat Aldo twice.

In doing so, the UFC’s featherweight champion officially established that a new era has begun in the featherweight division.

In a fight that was eerily similar to the first time they faced off, Aldo started strong and landed some good shots.

Holloway seemed entirely unbothered and just kept moving forward.

Just like the first time, it all led to a brilliant third-round in which the 25-year-old Holloway took over.

He stood in front of the man who ruled over the featherweight division for the better part of a decade and went shot-for-shot with him.

Aldo threw some nice punches, but Holloway threw better.

Eventually, Aldo fell and Holloway followed him to the mat. He bloodied him with punches that never seemed to shot, and when referee Herb Dean stepped in to end the fight, there could be no complaints.

Aldo lay on the mat with his hands above his head, contemplating the definitive end of his reign. Holloway jumped out of the cage and celebrated with his family.

“At the end of the day, it is what it is,” Holloway said in the octagon afterwards, repeating his signature catchphrase. “With all due respect, Aldo is a hell of a champion … This is a new era.”

If it is a new era, then Holloway seems like a worthy 145 lbs. king.

He’s won 12 fights in a row and beat the consensus greatest featherweight of all time twice.

It’s his division, plain and simple, and right now it looks like there’s nobody who is particularly close to challenging that.

NGANNOU’S TIME IS NOW

Francis Ngannou is real.

He’s so, so real.

Faced with the biggest test of his young career – seriously, he’s been fighting for four (!) years – Ngannou delivered the knockout of the year.

Alistair Overeem is a former kickboxing champion and a guy who knows how to strike with the best of them, but he’d never seen anything like Ngannou.

The Cameroonian needed only one minute and 42 seconds to connect with a left uppercut that knocked Overeem out cold.

It was just about the cleanest knockout fight fans have seen in years.

Ngannou landed clean, it was lights-out for Overeem, and a new star was born in the UFC heavyweight division.

“I’m ready for that,” Ngannou told Joe Rogan in the octagon. “They say the winner will get the title shot, so I think I got it.”

Rogan laughed for a second before responding.

“Yeah, you’re getting a title shot,” Rogan said.

Ngannou has gone 6-0 in the octagon since joining the UFC, and his last for fights have all ended in the first round.

He possesses power like nobody else on the entire roster, and has a skillset that seems impossible for a guy who has only been fighting professionally for four years.

His story is going to be everywhere over the next six months – or however long it takes for the UFC to book him against Miocic.

Highlights of his knockouts will play while he speaks about growing up poor in Cameroon and then leaving for Paris with no money to his name in 2013.

It’s an inspiring story, and as terrifying as Ngannou is in the octagon, he’s proven that he might just be the sort of human being who can rally new fans to the sport.

After the fight, Ngannou took the microphone from Rogan and thanked a long list of people before dedicating his victory to the Cameroonians currently being traded into slavery in Libya.

“F— slavery, f— racism,” Ngannou said.

Ladies and gentlemen, the next UFC superstar has arrived.

INSANITY

Justin Gaethje is as good as advertised.

Tough as hell, willing to take a beating to give a beating and a fighter who essentially guarantees a bloodbath every time he steps into the octagon.

On Saturday night, though, he ran into another man who fits that exact description, and Eddie Alvarez was up for whatever Gaethje wanted to throw at him.

In the end, the two men delivered an instant classic that they’ll spend the rest of 2017 trying to recover from, but a third-round knee to the head from Alvarez put Gaethje to sleep for the first time in his career.

The knockout was vicious and brutal, but what came before it was just as memorable.

From the very first bell, both guys threw everything they had at each other.

Alvarez alternated between body shots and upper cuts. Against any other opponent, he surely would have had a finish in the first round – the second at latest.

Gaethje is different, though. Since the very start of his career, he’s shown an insane ability to stay on his feet when other fighters would fall.

Gaethje looked dazed and confused, but kept moving forward. He threw leg kick after leg kick, and landed his fair share of left hooks.

He was down on the scorecards and badly hurt, but anyone who has ever watched Gaethje knows that doesn’t matter. He could have landed a knockout at any moment.

In the third, he pressed forward. A huge welt began growing on Alvarez’s right cheek, and the former lightweight champion seemed like he could only take one or two more kicks.

Gaethje might have been down, but he wasn’t out, and he began pressing for the finish.

About 30 seconds later, Alvarez kneed him in the head and it was lights-out for Gaethje.

What does this fight mean? Who knows? The lightweight division has been a mess ever since Conor McGregor knocked out Alvarez for the belt and then stormed out of the UFC to pursue lucrative boxing paydays.

Until he returns, nobody really knows what’s going on.

But on Saturday, Alvarez and Gaethje delivered a classic.

Who cares about championship belts when the fights are this entertaining?

“Title fights are great, but at the end of the day the thing everyone cares about is who the most violent fighter is, and that’s what this fight was tonight,” Alvarez said.

TITLE NEXT

With the way things have shaken out in the UFC’s women’s strawweight division recently, Tecia Torres might be fighting for the 115 lbs. title the next time she steps into the octagon.

Torres beat Michelle Waterson on Saturday night, and that’s probably enough to earn her a shot at gold for a number of reasons.

First, there’s the fact that the last woman to beat Waterson was Rose Namajunas, and that was enough to earn Namajunas a shot at then-champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk.

Namajunas won the belt when she fought for it, and while the UFC’s preference is clearly to do a rematch between her and Jedrzejczyk, there’s an argument that Torres should be next.

She’s 1-1 against Namajanus after all, having beaten the champion when they were fighting under the Invicta FC banner but losing when they were both in the UFC.

The Torres who showed up on Saturday was better than the one who fought Namajanus in early-2016.

She won almost every striking exchange she had with Waterson and was better on the ground, too. A unanimous decision win was her reward, but it’s worth noting that there are many refs who would have stopped the fight when Torres was unloading on Waterson in the fight’s last minute.

It was a dominant win, and she’s got every right to demand a title shot next.

“I feel tonight was my best performance,” Torres said. “I would love to get that rematch. A trilogy fight for the title would be incredible and I would love to show off everything I have learned since the last time Rose and I fought.” daustin@postmedia.com@DannyAUstin_9

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